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Monday, 23 December 2013

Goodbye 1936: PARAGON #15 and PARAGON Annual 2014

Within the space of a fortnight, TWO (yes, TWO!) mighty
PARAGON publications, masterminded by small-press guru Dave Candlish, have been
published. As is customary, here’s a few words on this festive coupling, since I’ve
had a hand in both.

Part 1: The King and I

PARAGON #15 features Spencer Nero (in what will be, if you
include the one and two-page stories, his 10th outing!) taking on
that historical threat to traditional British values, Mrs. Wallis Simpson,
lover of the King! Yep, the 1936 setting proves fertile once more, as Spencer
finds himself embroiled in the abdication crisis. The story is a sort-of sequel
to ‘Spencer Nero and the White Spider’, in that it features the return and
secret origin of Nazi soul-eater, Saturn Reisen, but it also nods its head in
the direction of several past stories. I am pleased that the strip has now
reached the point where I can start referencing and building on elements of
continuity, whilst still hopefully delivering an accessible done-in-one story.
I’m particularly happy this story ended up in the winter issue of PARAGON, as
it is set in December ’36 (yep, Spencer’s moving into 1937 next year!) and has
snow in it for at least three panels. Of course, the real king of the story is
artist Stephen Prestwood, who puts his stamp firmly on Spencer, and delivers
some striking two-fisted, square-jawed action. He even draws good giant maggots
– which is just as well, since Spencer seems to have adopted one, and intends
to name it Iapetus, after one of Saturn’s moons.

Of course, #15 also features some stellar work from my
fellow small-pressers. On the artistic front alone, this must be one of the
most varied and yet accomplished issues so far, featuring wildly contrasting
but no less aesthetically stunning pages. It’d be hard to name a favourite –
Chris Askham’s brilliantly atmospheric work on Mark Howard's ‘Jikan: Demeter’ is a definite
highlight, well-suited to ascript that
features a great central conceit, a great final page, and an excess of vampiric
hissing. Elsewhere in the issue, the wonderful El Chivo turns in some superb,
energetic, characterful work, every figure chock-full of vigor and personality,
whilst the Davey Candlish / TomNewell
combo works together to stylish and elegant effect, illustrating the intriguing
‘Bludd & Xandi’ (with Icarus Dangerous now finished, PARAGON is
honour-bound to feature a winged protagonist in at least one of its stories!)
And of course, there’s Jim Cameron’s cute-but-sometimes-sinister work in ‘The
Biggest Stick’, with an HdE script that, were it squished down to four pages, would
be more than worthy of appearing in 2000AD as a Future Shock. It’s not hard to
see why no less an authority than John Freeman reckoned this was the finest
issue to date.

Part 2: Annual General Beating

Meanwhile, over in the PARAGON Annual 2014, Spencer enters a new and unexplored
medium – prose! Based around the theme of board games (though I wrote it
without realising Davey would be including a Jikan board game in the annual!)
‘Spencer Nero and the Chairman of the Board’ introduces a new foe for the Civil
Centurion – Sors, God of Luck. It also reintroduces Oswald Gypsum, Mr.
Alabaster’s nephew, from the ‘Ruthless Rhymer’ story. The story sees Spencer
playing live-action Monopoly – the game was, of course, launched in Britain in
1936 (there’s that year again!)

I must admit, I found it really hard to settle on a story
for the prose tale. My first thoughts involved a tale called ‘Spencer Nero and
the Purple Prose’, in which form and content would match, and in which Spencer
would find an ancient tome that encouraged ever more flowery and pretentious
speech. However, I shelved that idea and decided instead to write a prose
adaptation of a comic script I was working on, ‘Spencer Nero and the Pack’ -
until I decided that one really did work better as a script after all. The
same thing happened with another half-finished script, in which Spencer falls
in love (!) – though I’m not telling you with whom or with what! Finally, I
settled on the ‘board game’ idea, because it seemed well-suited to appearing in
an annual published at a time of year when so many of such games get an airing.

Unlike with #15, I’m not going to discuss the rest of the
annual, ‘cos I reckon it’s best approached like a treasure trove or a
well-wrapped Christmas present – half the fun is ripping off the layers of
shiny paper and discovering for yourself what joys lie within! Davey Candlish
is pursuing a very specific aesthetic with this one, paying loving homage to
the annuals of his youth, and I feel he’s succeeded very well in recreating the
vibe he’s after. All I will say is that the annual also features familiar dose
of Spanish nonsense – much as no nativity scene is complete without a caganer! And
with that, I shall see you in 1937 – or 2014, if you prefer.

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About Me

I write things. Strange things, mind: comics and otherwise. At present, I have contributed to Doctor WTF?!, Dogbreath, Paragon, Temple APA, Disconnected, The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel and Massacre For Boys Picture Library. I have also published my own 52-page graphic novel, 'Martillo'.